O

n Sunday, Oct. 13, cyclone Phailin pounded Orissa state in eastern India and forced nearly 1 million people to move to higher ground. Heavy rain and howling winds tore down power pylons and 3-meter-high waves surged inland, reportedly destroying half a million hectares of cropland. Heat trapping moisture in the sea fed into the storm.

At the same time, typhoon Nari struck Luzon Island in the northern Philippines, forcing 40,000 residents to evacuate.

Fortunately, because of early warning and immediate action, few people died in the two storms, unlike hurricane Katrina that killed 1,200 people and devastated New Orleans in the US in 2005. Phailin, Nari and Katrina are examples of extreme weather events. By that measure alone the three storms are the cost of carbon pollution, the cost of having too many carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

On Oct. 22-23, Al Gore'€™s Climate Reality Project stages a worldwide 24-hour reality program that focuses on the cost of carbon. Starting in Los Angeles at 11 a.m. local time on Oct. 22, the former US vice president and tireless climate campaigner explains why people should be concerned about the cost of carbon. Recording across six continents in four cycles, a one-hour special will be broadcast on the Internet in each continent every six hours.

For Asia, the broadcast hours are 5 a.m., 11 a.m., 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. local Jakarta time on Oct. 23. At the same time, broadcasts will also be aired in Beijing, Shanghai, Dhaka, Delhi and Mumbai. Local speakers will continue the conversation and call for efforts to minimize the cost of carbon. The program in Jakarta will be hosted at the @america in Pacific Place Mall. Amanda Katili, manager of the Climate Reality Project Indonesia, will host a watch party starting at 4 p.m.

This is the third time in as many years Gore has held this global appeal to raise awareness on climate change. In 2011, the first event had no tagline but the focus was on local climate impacts, like Jakarta'€™s big flood in February 2007. In 2012, the theme was the Dirty Weather Report on storms, droughts and other extreme weather conditions. For 2013, the tagline is the Cost of Carbon, an issue clearly linked to the past two programs.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on Sept. 27 the first part of their fifth Assessment Report (AR5) on climate change. The IPCC concluded there was 95 percent certainty that human activity drove climate change. This exhaustive report, six years after the AR4 was released in 2007, is the consensus of the world'€™s leading climate scientists, 800 experts from 85 countries. Their findings will factor into the 24-hour reality show.

The basic story line in the one-hour special, repeated every hour for 24 hours, covers five points. Climate disruption is happening now. Extreme weather is occurring from a rise in sea levels, landslides and saltwater incursion. This climate disruption is costly, both financially and personally. The bill for the cost of carbon is incalculable. The solution is to put a price on carbon or go into denial. Each continent has a host who relates the distinct cost of carbon from his or her continent. Three costs of carbon specific to Asia are extreme heat, rising sea levels and increased tropical cyclone intensity.

Carbon pollution has a social cost that ordinary people have to bear. The personal cost of carbon can be too heavy, however, for the bearer to recover. It could be the woman farmer in Orissa who lost her rice harvest, 2 hectares of land and thatched-roof home to cyclone Phailin. It could be the resident in Luzon who lost her loved ones in the swirl of typhoon Nari because the roof of their house caved in.

These are the people who have to pay the cost of carbon. But some people are responsible for the carbon pollution and also benefiting from it. One segment of the one-hour show identifies the people, companies, organizations and government officials who create carbon pollution. They resist a price on carbon and fail to raise climate-change awareness. The show'€™s call to action is to put a price on carbon.

In Indonesia, 75 percent of carbon emissions come from deforestation and forest degradation. This includes peatland burning to clear the land for agriculture, mining, estate crops, public works or geothermal energy development. To his credit, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered in 2011 a two-year moratorium on the issuance of new permits to convert forest and peatland into profitable business ventures. Yudhoyono has now extended the ban by another two years. This policy to reduce deforestation puts a price on carbon.

However, the continuing haze in Riau caused by peat bushfires in the province in June and July, when smoke and haze spread to Singapore and southern Malaysia, indicates that more work on carbon pricing has to be done.

More work means more effort on the oversight of the moratorium and other established norms, such as the criteria used by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) that promotes growth and use of sustainable palm oil. Indonesia had 27 RSPO-certified growers as of August 2013, according to rspo.org. More firms should subscribe to sustainable principles.

More monitoring and independent verification on compliance should also be introduced. The more compliance is registered, the less incalculable the cost of carbon becomes.